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Now we have a chance to escape the image of the US being weak and indecisive: A Series

Part 1 - Attacks on Law Enforcement Personnel

The election of Donald Trump last November was, in my view, a turning point for America.

Why would I say that?

The most obvious reason is that President Trump has done more in his first 80 days or so in office to bring spirit and patriotism back to the people. These last four years under former President Obama have been insulting to American ideals--backing away from virtually every major crisis, afraid to face Putin and other world leaders from a position of strength, and creating 'red lines in the sand' that turned out to be joke. All this, and racial divisions we have not seen since the sixties, and an economy that continues to improve very slowly--urged on by some of the most anemic economic growth in years, perhaps since the depression.

Let's look at some specific issues in the coming series:

Increases in attacks on police and other first-responders

Reducing military preparedness and capability to its worst state, possibly since World War I

The Unaffordable "Affordable Care Act" or Obamacare, if you prefer

American Jobs

International Trade

American Law versus the United Nations

Religious Freedom

First, let's address the increasing attacks on police and other first responders. From the earliest days of the Obama administration, the dividing lines between grew into a great chasm. Most of this responded to the perception that white officers discriminated against minority citizens in large numbers. Obama's record was abysmal in trying to reduce that divide, first calling out an officer in Cambridge, MA for stopping and detaining a Harvard professor trying to climb into a window in his home since he had no key to the door. Following after, the debacle in Florida with Treavon martin, again in the late evening, and again, this time a member of the local neighborhood watch. A shooting occurred, Martin died, and Obama quickly came out condemning the situation without then knowing the facts. More situations arose, and in each case, Obama came out quickly with statements decrying the incident, and leaning heavily on racial disparity. In most of those instances, the police were actually in the right, but it did not matter--the perception of a portion of the public was all that mattered-- in the this case the minority portion.

Several other incidents also occurred during the same periods--one in Utah where a black officer killed a white student--but neither the White House nor the media chose to cover that, and other similar stories. For many, it quickly became evident to them that this was simple political expediency. Obama's Justice Department quickly moved to investigate, prosecute, and demand consent decrees in numbers of cities where these events occurred, regardless of who was at fault. In each case, it was not the crime that precipitated the event, but the facts that white officers injured or killed minority citizens. When numbers of the cases brought by the justice Department did not produce convictions, civil disturbances, looting, fires, and more injuries occurred day after day in some cities. In only very few instances did Obama and his administration ask for stops in the violence, leaving that to days after it had occurred, and yet another phalanx of Justice Department lawyers had already descended on the local city or town, usually first providing crisis counselors rather than investigators.

Under the Trump Administration, this has changed dramatically in several areas. first, There is no longer an automatic assumption that an incident involving a police officer, particularly a white police officer, and a black citizen is automatically racist until proven otherwise. Instead, under Attorney-general Sessions, it appears that each case of police action which results in a death of a citizen, where the possibility exits that the death was unnecessary, will be investigated separately--whether the victim was white, black, or another ethic group.

Second, the Attorney-general has made it clear that those who foment violence, MS-13, individual gangs, illegals, or terrorists are the priority of administration. Their slogan seems to be 'deal with the most critical crimes first, and solve them expeditiously.' While some ethnic groups have already said that discriminates against them, it seems to be a much more even-handed administration of justice to take a case when it goes, rather than make early assumptions.

Crime is an explosive issue, especially when it involves minority citizens and police or first responders, such as the neighborhood patrols. We cannot, in my view, simply assume crimes have taken place until we decide if there really was a crime.